Video title: You’re Not Crazy… The Real Reason [to] ProtectYour Spiritual Health
Transcription:
Recognize that the people you are around will affect your spiritual life.
Now, I know we understand this, and we acknowledge this as a truth, a reality. But I think we need to internalize this truth in such a way that it becomes a part of the way that we behave. It’s one thing to know that bad company corrupts good character [1 Corinthians 15:33]. It’s one thing to understand intellectually that the people you’re around can affect you. It’s another thing to internalize that truth in such a way that you live a lifestyle of intentional relationship-building. Not just connecting with anyone all the time. Now I understand that as the body of Christ, we are to be connected. But this doesn’t mean that the people closest to you, who you confide in, who pray with you, who understand you at a deeper level, who you spend most of your time with, that doesn’t mean everyone has to be allowed inside of that. Now, I want to balance this because we also have to understand that there are people who are struggling. And this doesn’t mean we just dismiss them and have nothing to do with them. But if they begin to influence you in a way that takes away from your relationship with the Lord, if they begin to influence you in a way takes you off focus or begins to weaken your commitment to Christ, now it’s time to make that separation. Maybe not even completely, but distance them a little.
The key difference is this: are you influencing them, or are they influencing you?
This popped up in my video feed today, and as I’m preparing
for another new year, and another new season, right now is the time for gathering
wisdom, for letting go of old thoughts, feelings, habits, etc., and sometimes
that will include a reminder of some things I already know.
I thought it was interesting (in a good way) that this video
popped up with the precise message that it came with. It confirmed not one but
two truths that I know but still need to hone in on:
- Bad company corrupts good character. Be watchful who I spend time with and invite into my inner circle.
- Being aware of a truth doesn’t mean much if I don’t internalize it and practice it.
I want to touch on the second point a little bit more, since I’ve already covered the first point in previous posts. When I was in the intensive portion of my time in counseling, for the first half of that time there was a poster in either the front hallway that read:
[Interestingly, the man who coined the above – Arnold Bennett – doesn’t appear to be a Christian. Aside from perusing his Wikipedia article, I don’t know much else about Bennett. He was an author who lived about 100 years ago in England. I want to try to be transparent about things like this because, among other reasons, we are precisely on the topic of being on guard with what we allow to influence us. The thing is, my counseling center was a Christian center run by Bible-believers, at least during this time (I cannot necessarily say that it stayed that way after the founder died!). I understand that, as believers, we should be careful. However, if two of the men I looked up to, who also walked the walk of faith, saw that this phrase was true, then I think it can be trustworthy. Similarly, to borrow the concept of “a stopped watch is right twice a day,” I think it’s important to note that that stopped watch isn’t always wrong, even if it usually is. (Wisdom required. Wisdom applied.) Contrast that to someone like Neil DeGrasse Tyson, where a video of him came up in a Google search (I was trying to find the quote found in the image prior to this paragraph) claiming that “souls don’t exist.” Obviously, I disagree with that because it’s wrong. (Wisdom required. Wisdom applied.) But I can look at Bennett’s quote and, finding that it has matched much of my life’s experience with learning, as well as finding it to be true in the experiences of multiple individuals who I looked up to, reasonably conclude that it is a truthful and trustworthy saying.]
In the coming days I will be posting about some watchwords
for 2026. God is already giving me some tasks to hone in on.